Living the Highlife in Ghana: Origins and Influences of Ghanaian Music

By Sammie, Makenna, and Daniel

Overview

We explore how Hiplife and Highlife have become a rich part of the Ghanaian musical experience primarily within the younger generation. Although these two genres differ in style and content, they are both beautiful representations of Ghanaian life, culture, and society. We discuss the intersections and influences of styles, gender, age, and politics within the newer genre of Hiplife. While Highlife sparked a new wave of Ghanaian music, Hiplife was born of youth advocating for resistance & change by fusing together elements of traditional Highlife with US American hip hop. This genre is both contested and celebrated along the lines of political beliefs, age, and gender, and reaches audiences around the world.

Highlife 

Highlife emerged in the 1880s, about a century before Hiplife. Highlife incorporates African American Blues, Carribean Reggae, as well as hints of pop and rock music (which are also descendants of the African Diasporic experience). There is a large amount of Western/European influence due to colonialism, and the introduction of European instruments in Ghana, but the African rhythms have been maintained through the use of local instruments such as hand drums, rattles and timekeeping instruments. (Collins, 1989). Highlife incorporates music, theatre, dance and story-telling. Songs deal with many themes of everyday life such as marriage, poverty, death, and social mobility. Highlife is popular for entertainment of guests & at funerals for songs about death. (Van der Geest, Sjaak, and Nimrod K. Asante-Darko, 1982).

Women & Highlife

Women were long left out of the Highlife industry. There were a lot of negative connotations for women who played with male Highlife artists and they were seen as “sexually loose” and “immoral.” This lead to male artists refusing to allow women into their groups. Women were not supposed to be band members and definitely not band leaders. However, there were women who did not care about the opinions formed about them and they joined anyways including but not limited to: Vida Hynes (nee Oparabea) in the 1960s and Adelaide Buabeng who also joined a band despite her parents’ wishes (Collins, 2003, 1-2)

Hiplife

Hiplife is a direct descendant of African American Hip hop, which stems from traditional styles of African storytelling. This relationship that formed between the styles of music of African Americans and Ghanaians is a beautiful, and natural one. Hiplife started to emerge in the 1990s in response to music programs being cut in Ghana. This is similar to Hip hop, which also emerged as a form of resistance. Hiplife combines traditions of Hip hop such as rapping, sampling of music, and electronic beats.  Hiplife music is made of many dialects and languages, including but not limited to Twi, Fante, Ga, Ewe, Hausa, and English. “Moreover, Hiplife is not just a blend of other forms of music; it is a combination of local rhythms like the Adowa, and instruments such as Kpanlogo drums, xylophones, flutes, thumb pianos, and samples of old highlife favorites from performers” (Jabbaar-Gyambrah, 2008).

Women in Hiplife

Ghanaian women were long left out of the music world, but specifically the Highlife & Hiplife industries. They broke down these barriers through emergence in the gospel scene. Their presence in the gospel scene was seen as acceptable because of its religious affiliation, and was allowed through the implication of colonial views of gender guidelines and religion. After their emergence into gospel, they began to push forward the Hiplife concept, so Ghanaian women were a part of the birth of Hiplife, even when they were being kept out of it. 

Contemporary issues surrounding women in Hiplife continue to incite the questioning of gender roles, and potential gender violence. Erlmann writes that men in Ghana continue to hold an authoritative status over women, and there consequently exists a power dynamic between male performers and female rappers in Hiplife; this is not a struggle unique to Ghana, however, as there is much controversy surrounding Hip hop and Rap artists and gender in the United States as well. Hiplife is seen as “macho” and is dominated by men, thus making it even more difficult for women to join in. Triple M was the first women’s group to release a Hiplife album in 2003.  Ghanaian women had to create space for themselves to participate in Hiplife by introducing themes that were important to them and their communities into their music.

Hip hop vs Hiplife: Similarities, Differences, and Everything in Between

Hip hop and Hiplife are both platforms and avenues, typically driven by young people, to express domestic, social, religious, or political views and concerns. These platforms both play a central role in refashioning rising generations to actively challenge ageist and cultural norms that expect younger people to be submissive and accept authority. For example, cultural critic and a Ghanaian writer, Esi Sutherland-Addy, argues “Hiplife gives youth swagger making them believe that they have the right to speak in public, whereas traditionally youth are supposed to sit down and show respect to their elders.” (Shipley, 2009). As a result, younger people, particularly young men due to gender expectations, self-proclaim the platform of Hip hop and Hiplife as a counter stance to challenge society writ-large. For example, in Ghana, Kwame Asare Obeng’s song, “A Letter to Parliament”, shows that Ghanaian politicians are “more often than not, self-centered and seek personal parochial interest and not the interest of the citizenry” in an attempt to “depict the ills perpetuated by politicians and more importantly to criticize the activities of politicians in the hope that such telling criticisms would make them amend their ways.” (Nartey, 2015). Ultimately, both Hip hop and Hiplife highlight critical social issues in contemporary society, thus uplifting a social conscious among youth.

Hip hop and Hiplife also gained a lot of popularity in many similar ways. A lot of traction for hip hop and Hiplife was gained interpersonally; whether it was through media, public spaces, or word of mouth, Hip hop and Hiplife both gained a lot of popularity. For example, Dr. Tara Jabbaar-Gyanmbrah, a sociology professor at the University of Buffalo claims that Hiplife gained popularity through “dance clubs, radio and television play, and the circulation of cassettes and videos. Around Accra’s open air drinking spots and nightclubs, markets, taxi stands, and compound houses, hiplife bodily styles and rebellious spirit entered non-elite worlds.” (Jabbaar-Gyambrah, 2015). In like manner, seeing young Black artists rise to fame through Hip hop or Hiplife, such as Reggie Rockstone or Tupac, allowed other people to see these artists at the forefront of the struggle, ultimately inspiring listeners. For example, American Hip hop appealed to Ghanaians “through its formal elements of stylistic persuasion, especially the defiant stances and spectacular rise to fame of young Black, male artists” because of the artists’  “success and lyrical flow, but also because they were unexpectedly gunned-down giving the status of martyrs in the global struggle of Black youth.” (Shipley, 2009). In addition to the similar ways Hip hop and Hiplife garnered a lot of attention, they’ve also influenced various fashion trends which people perceived as desirable. To demonstrate, Dr. Tara Jabbaar-Gyanmbrah further explains that “Baggy pants, oversized chains, basketball sneakers and Timberland boots, sun-glasses and goggles, baseball caps, name-brand and knock-off gear made in Nigeria became the rage.” (Jabbaar-Gyambrah, 2015). In addition, the global political economy moved so drastically by the influence and passion for these artists, that “if a new-fashion or product comes out in New York, the next day it was in Accra” (Shipley, 2009).

Lastly, Hip hop and Hiplife are similar in the sense that at their core, storytelling is present. As Shipley argues, “one of the core connections between Hip hop and Hiplife music is rapping, which is the art of sharing one’s story.” (Shipley, 2009). Ultimately, Hip hop and Hiplife can be connected through their similarities of how they gained popularity, influence of clothing and what’s deemed as desirable, and how storytelling is at the core of each platform. A huge difference between Hip hop and Hiplife is that Hiplife is legitimized by the country while the United States demonizes Hip hop. Hip hop is read as unintelligible, deviant, and in the periphery of the scholarly world, however, Hiplife has been legitimized by the Ghanaian state through its state-sponsored programs promoting younger generations into taking part in Hiplife. Reggie Rockstone, known for revolutionizing Ghanaian popular music, transformed hiplife into an “ authoritative public speech genre and legitimized rap in the Akan language.” (Shipley, 2009). In the mid 1990’s, the state of Ghana sponsored a youth program for the purpose to “foster the development of National Culture”, which refashioned Hiplife as part of cultural tradition and attracted thousands of youth to participate (Shipley, 2009). In comparison, their is different dominant perceptions and discourses surrounding the view of Hip hop and Hiplife. Ultimately, Hip hop is demonized by the state while Hiplife is legitimized through the state.

Hiplife and Ghanaian Youth Today

Ghanaian youth have a big part in this musical genre; Scholar Gorya Cho argues in her article “Hiplife, Cultural Agency and the Youth Counter-Public in the Ghanaian Public Sphere” that Highlife demonstrates how structural transformations in Ghanaian society have pushed the youth to the margins of society. She sites changes such as high unemployment rates, cultural erosion, and a disparity between personal ambition and opportunities for advancement (406). This relates to Hiplife in that the youth often take to this genre as a platform for expressing themselves and their concerns about society. This genre is highly controversial in Ghana, but Cho argues that this is what makes Hiplife uniquely positioned to discuss controversial things: “The pervasiveness and controversy of Hiplife uniquely positions its music as a crossroads for socio-cultural discourse” (407). Hiplife has even become a platform for discussing political developments since it’s rise in the 1990s. Cho highlights the importance of the outlet for youth given how the Ghanaian social system is strongly rooted in community kinship, “leaving little room for the exercise of youth agency and the projection of youth voice” (410). In Twi, one of the more commonly spoken languages in Ghana, there are two dialects–Elder speech, which is the more formal of the two, and casual speech. Many of Ghana’s youth have not learned the formal dialect because of the pressure the country faces to ‘modernize’. Unfortunately, this means that the youth do not have as much of an opportunity to participate in public debate, as it is formally conducted in Elder speech.  

A, obia nyɛ obia	Ah, everybody is nobody
What, obia nyɛ obia	What, everybody is nobody
Obia nni hɔ, ɔyɛ nipa sen obi	Nobody is more human than somebody else
Nyankopɔn bɔɔ yɛn nyinaa pɛ	God created all of us equal
Yɛn nyinaa, yɛhyɛ mmra ase	All of us, we are under the law
Obia nni hɔ a, sɛbe, mmra hyɛ n’ase	There is nobody who is above the law
President o, lawyer o, yɛn nyinaa yɛhyɛ mmra ase	The president, a lawyer, all of us are under the law

Additionally, Hiplife is able to reach a large audience, and has a range of listeners. It is important to also note that music, this genre included, is often more accessible to everyday people than participation in formal public debates; this is a way for youth, despite their socioeconomic status, to lend their voice to political debates. Cho writes, “These youth find themselves in a new political environment in which they are at liberty to speak freely in public…hiplife elevates minority voices, from youth and adult alike, to the national stage” (415). But hiplife is not always met with enthusiasm and the idea of liberation; critics claim that this brand of music promotes delinquency and a lack of discipline. Author Veit Erlmann confers that early forms of Hiplife was met with skepticism, and continues to be considered by “the country’s elite as being too ‘foreign’ and of questionable morals” (187). For example, the song ‘Obia Nye Obia’ by Sidney is a commentary on the growing socio-economic divide in Ghana. “The title of the song literally translates as ‘everybody is nobody’, a purposefully paradoxical statement,” writes Cho (417). In this song about classism, Sidney appeals to Ghanaians to look beyond material differences to recognize that fundamentally, all humans are the same. In this way, we are all nobody in that no one is above another person.

Conclusion

Highlife and Hiplife are growing popular forms of music in Ghana. Listened to by the thousands, Highlife and Hiplife are cultural forms of music embedded in multiple outlets. Expressed by dancing, storytelling, theater, and other ways, Highlife and Hiplife are both greatly appreciated in Ghana. Highlife emerged a century before Hiplife in the 1880’s which incorporates descendants of the African Diasporic experience, such as African American Blues, with a mixture of western influence as a result of colonialism. Hiplife, on the other hand, is a direct descendant of African American Hip Hop which emerged in the 1990’s. Hiplife provides Ghanaians- particularly men (because Hiplife is a male dominated space placing women in the periphery)- with an outlet to actively challenge social issues through utilizing their music as a platform. Overall, Highlife and Hiplife are both outlets of expression, enjoyment, and culture by many in Ghana.

Works Cited

Cho, Glorya. “Hiplife, Cultural Agency and the Youth Counter-Public in the Ghanaian Public Sphere.” Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. 45, no. 5, 2010, pp. 406-423. Sage Publications, doi:10.1177/0021909610373888. Accessed 30 Oct. 2019.

Collins, John. 1989. “The Early History of West African highlife music.” Popular Music 8 (3) (October): 221-230.

Erlmann, Veit. Rev of “Living the Hiplife: Celebrity and Entrepreneurship in Ghanaian Popular Music. Jesse Weaver Shipley. London and Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2013, pp. 329.” in African Music: Journal of the International Library of African Music, vol. 9, no. 3, 2013, pp. 187-189. Accessed 30 Oct. 2019.

Jabbaar-Gyambrah, Tara. “Gender Politics of hip hop and Hip-Life Music in New York and Ghana.” Afro-Americans in New York Life & History, vol. 39, no. 1, Jan. 2015, pp. 7–31. EBSCOhost, 

Nartey, Mark. “Representations of Politicians in Contemporary Ghanaian Hiplife Music.” CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 17.4 (2015): <https://doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.2462>

Shipley, Jesse Weaver. “Aesthetic of the Entrepreneur: Afro-Cosmopolitan Rap and Moral Circulation in Accra, Ghana.” Anthropological Quarterly 82 (2009): 631 – 668.Van der Geest, Sjaak, and Nimrod K. Asante-Darko. “The Political Meaning of Highlife Songs in Ghana.” African Studies Review, vol. 25, no. 1, 1982, pp. 27–35. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/523990.